Even WhatsApp is going to court. This is happening in Italy, where the Supreme Court of Cassation has ruled that the contents of the messaging app owned by Meta have evidential value and can, therefore, be used as evidence in civil proceedings. The novelty came with a sentence that overturned the verdict of the judges of the first instance, who, in a proceeding between a door and window company and a client, had ruled in favour of the latter. The company accused the client of not having respected the agreements and having paid only a third of the agreed amount, which was 28,050 euros. The judges rejected the accusation because there was no evidence to support the claim, while the client claimed to have paid 10,000 euros and to have never agreed to pay any additional amount.
The Italian case and decisive requirements
On appeal, the Court of Milan overturned the decision, ruling that the company was right after viewing a WhatsApp conversation in which the customer had confirmed that he would have to pay just over 28,000 euros for the work carried out by the company. The client then appealed to the Supreme Court of Cassation, contesting the use of the WhatsApp message as documentary evidence, but the judges rejected the appeal and ruled that messages stored on the phone can constitute effective evidence in civil trials.
This rule applies if certain factors are respected. For a chat from the app acquired for 19 billion dollars by Mark Zuckerberg in 2014 to have probative value, certain requirements must be met. The first concerns the identifiability of the device, with messages that must come from a device clearly attributable to a specific person. The second refers to the integrity of the content, which must not be altered or manipulated in any way. Finally, a screenshot of content exchanged between two parties on WhatsApp can also be considered valid evidence in the case of a chat that has been deleted. This means that where the requirements are met, even a screenshot saved by a third party can be considered valid evidence in a trial.
The consequences of the investigations
More than just the specific case, the ruling of the Court of Cassation opens up new scenarios regarding the use of chats in judicial and fiscal proceedings. This is because the authorities can consider any type of content exchanged on WhatsApp as documentary evidence during tax audits. It is, therefore, natural that during a tax inspection, personal smartphones and computers will be examined to identify any conversations relevant to the investigation.
A critical aspect of this new development concerns the risk of abuse and errors because a screenshot could be taken out of context and interpreted in a distorted way, or content could be invented thanks to AI software. The privacy issue is no less important, considering that part of WhatsApp’s success is due to the inviolability of its content, which is accessible only to the sender and recipient.
Looking at technological evolution instead, it is significant to note that after email, audio recordings, Facebook posts and geolocation, WhatsApp is now becoming a useful tool in legal proceedings. This is a step that extends the list of digital technologies that have pushed back the boundaries of legal proceedings, forcing judges and legal specialists to deepen their knowledge of tech solutions.
